Northwestern Professors Assist Victims in Nepal

CHICAGO --- Dr. Scott Cordes, assistant clinical professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and Dr. Victoria Brander, an associate professor at Feinberg, were featured in the May 14 Chicago Tribune with Operation Walk Chicago for providing trauma services to earthquake disaster victims in Nepal.

Established in 2005 by Northwestern professor Dr. David Stulberg and Brander, Operation Walk Chicago doctors helped treat an estimated 1,200 victims from the April 25 earthquake that reportedly killed more 8,150 Nepal residents.

According to the Tribune article, Operation Walk doctors such as Cordes and Brander “travel to developing countries to provide knee and hip replacements and teach physicians the skills to perform these procedures.” Brander, who described her recent experience as “stunning” and “humbling,” had visited Nepal a number of times over the last five years and had established a relationship with doctors at Kathmandu hospital, where she and Cordes treated patients, according to the article. This was the first time Operation Walk Chicago had responded to a natural disaster.

“Dr. Scott Cordes was operating on a patient Tuesday when the hospital building in Nepal began to violently shake,” wrote Paulina Firozi in the Tribune. “He could hear screams throughout the hospital as nurses and family members tried to evacuate patients ... He was treating victims of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Nepal less than three weeks ago, when the area was struck again -- this time by a 7.3-magnitude quake centered between the capital Kathmandu and Mount Everest.”

Cordes and the Operation Walk Chicago team will return to Chicago at the end of the week, the article stated, and will coordinate follow-up visits to check on patients. Operation Walk continues to accept donations for Nepal.